“He invented this thing”: how Adam Driver inadvertently changed cinema
Adam Driver is still in the prime era of his career, but he’s already left an interesting legacy that has impacted his peers.
Easily one of the best actors of his generation, Driver has shown a mastery of the craft through his work in films, television, and live theatre, and there’s no better proof of that than the number of brilliant directors who have worked with him, from New Hollywood legends Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola to independent film heroes like Spike Lee, Rian Johnson, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, and more.
Although he still has a number of great projects ahead of him, and despite the many niche, arthouse titles that he has appeared in, he might still be best known for his performance as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Of all the new characters introduced in the new generation of Star Wars content by Disney, Kylo Ren has by far become the most popular. While the cool character design, mask, and lightsaber might be a major reason why the action figures have sold so well, it was Driver’s performance that made the character so endearing.
The actor did more than just bask in Star Wars nostalgia, as he contributed something deep and vulnerable to his performance that elevated the material. Based on the fact that Kylo Ren’s mask hid his face, Disney and Lucasfilm were able to add additional lines in order to accommodate script changes, and Driver treated these recordings seriously, often gripping a metal bar in the recording booth because of how in-character he’d get.
According to Dave Franco, the actors who provided voice-over work for the new Pixar film Hoppers made a habit of using what they would refer to as “the Adam Driver” bar while doing their recordings. It may have only been a personal technique used by Driver to help with a specific performance, but Franco said, “He invented this thing that changed animation forever!”
Although Driver was recording lines for a character that he was already playing in live-action, his approach may have inadvertently led to a higher uptick in the quality of animated films, and while theoretically they should hire voice actors to play the critical characters, it is often that studios simply hire already well-known big-name actors who don’t have experience of the specific process of voice-acting, which requires a different set of skills.
Based on what Franco and his Hoppers co-star Wyatt Russell said, having something to grip allowed them to take their performances more seriously, resulting in more emotionally rewarding characters. The investment that these stars put into their roles has a direct influence on these films succeeding critically, which can also help them at the box office, and thus, Hoppers was able to become one of the highest-grossing Pixar films in ages, a major win for the studio after the disappointment of Elio, Lightyear, and Turning Red.
Driver has yet to voice a character in an animated film, so it will be interesting to see if he ever takes advantage of the new opportunities for voice-over actors that he helped to create, but there is definitely still a desire to see him return to play Kylo Ren, as Star Wars fans have lobbied for him to reprise his role.
